


Best Case Scenario

by Azzandra



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabbles, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-22 05:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2495549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azzandra/pseuds/Azzandra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucrezia does not enact her plan, and Klaus returns to find Europa in a much better condition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Klaus Returns

“I still can’t believe you named your firstborn after me,” Klaus said.

Bill snorted, then rubbed a hand over his face, mildly embarrassed.

“He didn’t think about how confusing it would be once you were back,” Barry supplied with a grin.

“We call him KB, anyway,” Bill said.

“How very modern,” Klaus said.

“Anything’s going to seem modern compared to ‘Gilgamesh’,” Bill retorted. Klaus accepted the criticism with grace and a small grin.

They quietly regarded the children playing for a while. KB and Gil were building an elaborate fortress-city out of the contents of KB’s toy chests. They were currently working on an airship dock, which they decided should also have a moat. Not the whole city, just the airship dock specifically. They had an elaborate reasoning behind this, which made about as much sense as expected from children three and four years old respectively.

Agatha, only one year old and too young to join in, was babbling happily to herself as Klaus held her. He’d mentioned, briefly, a daughter he had to leave behind, and neither Bill nor Barry were inclined to press for details yet.

“Do you think,” Barry said, as the toy city overtook most of the playroom floor, “they intend to stop anytime soon?”

“I think we should go look for another toy chest, because they’re low on construction material,” Bill replied.

“Right,” Barry sighed. “You keep Klaus company. I think I saw a bunch of stuff in the attic, and hardly any of it looked deadly.”

He got up to leave, and was surprised to come face to face with Lucrezia, lingering in the doorway.

“Look at what the cat dragged in!” she said, leaning against the door frame. “Klaus! Back already?”

By the way she acted, one would have thought Klaus had just popped out for a few minutes. He gave her a look so stony it put mountains to shame.

“Sooner than you expected, I’m sure,” he replied.

She gave a slow, feline smile at that.

“Well, I can see you boys have things well in hand here,” she said. “I’ll leave you to it, shall I?” She blew them a kiss before turning on her heel and vanishing down the hall.

“What was that all about?” Bill asked, as he and Barry gave Klaus identical confused looks.

“I’ll tell you about it one day,” Klaus replied, still looking at the doorway.


	2. Mother/Daughter Bonding

Lucrezia was unpleasantly surprised to discover Agatha in her lab. It wasn’t one of her more hidden ones, but she had been hoping to do some work in peace, and Agatha was getting uncommonly good at evading her nurse. Obviously she took a bit too much after her father.

Lucrezia had no clue how long Agatha had even been there; she could have come in at any point during Lucrezia’s fugue and gone completely unnoticed. The little girl was kneeling up in a chair next to the work table and quietly watching, wide-eyed.

Lucrezia took off her goggles to better frown at her daughter.

“Agatha, dear, what  _are_  you doing here?” she demanded, tapping her foot.

Not taking her eyes off a bubbling beaker, Agatha shrugged.

Oh, what wonderful creatures children were, Lucrezia thought sardonically. So very precise.

“Where’s your brother?” Lucrezia asked instead.

“He’s building something with Gil,” Agatha replied.

“Then why don’t you go play with them? Mummy is a bit busy at the moment.”

Agatha’s expression soured completely at this suggestion. She sulkily crossed her arms.

“They won’t  _let me_  play with them!” she complained. “KB says I’m too small and I’ll get hurt!”

“Does he now?” Lucrezia said distractedly. Where was Von Pinn? Probably looking for Agatha at this very moment. Honestly, why even have a nurse if the little brats were going to get loose anyway?

“Boys are stupid,” Agatha added, sounding so serious that Lucrezia had to bite back a laugh. Agatha sounded—oh dear— _foiled_. Lucrezia remembered how that felt.

“Well, of course they are,” Lucrezia found herself saying. “But you’re not going to let them get away with it, are you?”

“Um…” Agatha looked up uncertainly at her mother.

“Revenge, dear! I’m proposing you get even.”

“How do I do that?”

Lucrezia looked around the lab, already making a mental list of ingredients perfect for the task. Nothing too damaging, of course. It simply didn’t do to seriously harm her son and Klaus’ little boy. But still something to make them _rue the day_  a bit.

“We,” Lucrezia said, as she adjusted the straps on a pair of goggles to fit Agatha, “are going to make a sticky bomb.”

Agatha’s eyes widened in surprise, and then she jumped up to her feet in excitement.

Lucrezia hoped Agatha enjoyed this time together, because this was a one time exception and she did not plan to make it a regular thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested in hearing more about it, I made a post elaborating on my ideas about this AU [here](http://azzandra.tumblr.com/post/99834559701/okay-so-ive-been-thinking-about-this-au-again).


	3. Von Pinn

Though Von Pinn knew a second child would be given to her care long before she was born, it was still a shock when Agatha arrived, as if her mere existence rearranged the order of the universe. Prerogatives previously dormant surfaced once again, like forgotten mechanisms grinding to life, things Von Pinn did not realize had carried over. Things Von Pinn did not realize  _could_  carry over.

Had Lucrezia done this on purpose? What did the beastly woman know? How much had been planned? How much had been mere fluke?

This was what Von Pinn pondered, on the days when her task was simple, when keeping the Heterodyne Girl safe was merely a matter of watching over her crib.

But as in all matters concerning the Heterodynes, the quiet did not last for long.

* * *

 

The mother was indifferent; the father was permissive. Von Pinn was frustrated.

It seemed that from the moment Agatha learned how to toddle, she decided she would always be going away from Von Pinn. This was not a problem Von Pinn had ever experienced with her brother, who placed upon a carpet with an interesting toy, could spend hours sitting in place, taking it apart and putting it together again.

“Maybe she feels smothered,” Barry Heterodyne suggested. “Try easing up on her a bit, I’m sure she won’t try to get away as much.”

“Until she ceases to run away at all, I will watch her just as closely,” Von Pinn replied.

Barry didn’t argue, but went away muttering something about a chicken and egg problem.

Bill Heterodyne saw no issues with this behavior. He doted on the girl as he doted on his son, and saw her escape attempts as amusing quirks rather than a problem.

But at times he would take her in his lap and put on a grave face and tell her, “Agatha, please stop making Madame Von Pinn fret. Be a good girl, alright?” And then he’d break into a grin, which Von Pinn rather thought undermined his authority. Agatha certainly only ever took this as meaning that she should become  _better_  at eluding her nurse.

Von Pinn would sometimes pick up Agatha as well, and attempt to be stern.

“I do what I do to keep you safe,” she’d tell the girl.

Agatha would nod, but then immediately try to squirm out of her arms.

Von Pinn’s hands were clawed and dangerous; suited for protection, but not for holding a child too tightly. She would sigh and let Agatha climb down and wander away again.

* * *

 

Children grew quickly, but it seemed to Von Pinn that they grew up even faster when in each other’s company.

Gilgamesh Wulfenbach was a constant presence at Castle Heterodyne, and Theopholous DuMedd visited with some frequency as well. Others visited as well, children of family friends or visiting dignitaries.

Agatha was frequently the youngest among them, but did not hesitate to elbow and worm her way into games when the older children—her brother among them—did not show her due deference. She would compete all the more fiercely for her size, and win more often than KB would have liked.

And Agatha learned. She had a mind hungry for knowledge, even for a child, and she absorbed new concepts, new games, new languages with a zest that put even her brother to shame.

But what Von Pinn dreaded was what Agatha would learn from her peers once they were adults instead of children. Because children could be cruel, but had not lived long enough to become truly practiced at it.

* * *

 

And yet there were days when it was not any less harrowing to have Agatha within sight. The days when she played with KB and Gil, and she hummed in counterpoint to her brother. They built things on those days, frantic and wild in a way most children weren’t. The madness caught like fire between them, in ever escalating rungs, Sparks only just starting to shine.

Their parents took pride in this. Even the sensible Klaus, who knew they were much too young, looked upon his son with a soft joy on his face. Bill and Barry were more transparently pleased, that the Spark burned so brightly into the next generation, and Mechanicsburg was always fiercely proud of its Heterodynes.

And Lucrezia, aloof and distant until then, looked upon KB and Agatha with something which might be mistaken for maternal affection in the wrong light. Bill encouraged her to begin spending more time with the children, but he did not see the speculative gleam in his wife’s eye. He did not understand.

Lucrezia’s new interest began to hinder Von Pinn, who always did her best to avoid the woman. And Agatha, ever perceptive, began to find her escape by drawing closer to her mother.

Stuck around corners, unwilling to advance and unable to turn back, torn between the need to protect her ward and profound aversion for Lucrezia, Von Pinn felt herself a failure.

* * *

 

Europa grew quiet over the years. Not completely, not enough to become boring, but a balance shifted, and the Heterodyne Boys found themselves spending more time in Mechanicsburg than abroad. And the children grew into their Spark more and more each day.

Lucrezia’s interest in Agatha waned again as Agatha stopped seeking out her mother. Von Pinn was relieved, though she did not show it. Instead KB and Agatha spent their time in scientific pursuits, either together or on an independent basis. Tutors were hired, and rapidly exhausted by Agatha and KB, but Bill and Barry were only too happy to step in. The time they’d previously filled with adventure began to be spent in laboratories or around Mechanicsburg, passing on their knowledge to the next generation.

Von Pinn still watched. Though Agatha’s father and uncle were good men, Von Pinn could not entrust Agatha to them without making sure she remained safe.

Agatha, grown tall and confident in her adolescence, did not run from Von Pinn anymore.

“I’m too old for a nurse,” she’d complain. “I can take care of myself.”

“I know,” Bill would reply, but not add anything more.

He did not send Von Pinn away and he did not forbid her from watching Agatha. Whatever he knew, however he knew it, Von Pinn was grateful that he did nothing about it.

“You don’t make her watch  _KB_ ,” Agatha muttered one day.

“I don’t make her watch you either,” Bill replied lightly. “You need to pay closer attention.”

Listening from beyond the doorway, Von Pinn couldn’t see Agatha’s reaction. But the girl did not say anything. Von Pinn couldn’t guess why.

* * *

 

Gil did not visit as often as when they were all children.

But sometimes, when urgent manners once again called away the Heterodyne Boys and their allies, Gil would be dropped off in Mechanicsburg, and the children would make up for lost time. They became carefree and reckless again, and it was a fortunate thing Mechanicsburg was a sturdy town.

What Von Pinn did not expect, though perhaps she really should have, was for the children to leave Mechanicsburg in search of their own adventure. She found the message meant for Lord Heterodyne, who had not returned yet. It was a plea for help from a distant neighbor, unaware of the Heterodyne Boys’ absence.

She pieced together what happened rather easily—of course the children went off to help. They had the blood of heroes, and nothing but stories in their heads. She pursued them with great prejudice, and caught up with them before they could do anything rash.

What she should have done at that point was drag them back to Mechanicsburg. What she did instead was listen to KB talk, and that proved a grave mistake.

“Madame Von Pinn,” the boy said, nothing but earnest eyes and pleading voice, “these people need help. There’s nobody else. Please, come with us to help them.”

Something woke up in Von Pinn again, deeper than orders and imperatives. A yearning to return to what she was. She listened to it, more than she did to the boy’s words.

* * *

 

Of their first outing, the children would remember the terror of bad decisions resulting in harm to innocents; the terrible weight of responsibility taken on with too little forethought; the fear of failing those who depended on them; the exultation of victory.

Von Pinn would remember blood; fire; pain.

She would remember tearing into the flesh of beasts who would harm her children, and being torn into.

She would remember the astringent smell of medicine. The leaden weight of anesthetic. A hand against her forehead, cool fingers brushing back hair.

She would not remember whose hand it was. She would not be able to guess for a very long time, for years, and then the answer would come to her on its own.

* * *

 

Von Pinn woke to a world subtly different in ways she could not have predicted. The children were subdued, even though they were also pleased to no end. Their parents had granted them permission to go out and help, in matters which were not considered too dangerous for them to handle.

“Irresponsible,” Von Pinn hissed unhappily when she heard.

Bill gave her a crooked grin.

“If we forbid them, they’ll just sneak off on their own,” he said. “Better to just let them go, so we can keep them safe.”

Later in the day, Von Pinn came across Agatha and KB already talking effusively about their next adventure, and speculating wildly about when it would take place.

“Are you feeling better, Madame Von Pinn?” KB asked.

Von Pinn pressed a hand against her side, where Gil’s stitches were still holding strong.

“I will heal,” she said.

“Good,” Agatha said. “Then you’ll be good to go by the time we can leave again.”

Von Pinn blinked, surprised not only that she would be going along, but that her presence was taken as a given. Agatha turned back to her conversation with KB, as if she did not understand the oddness of the moment.

Suddenly, Bill Heterodyne’s words from earlier felt like a reprimand, delayed in time but no less stinging.

As strange as it felt to do so, Von Pinn retreated from the room, allowing Agatha out of her sight.

She didn’t go very far, only down the corridor a ways, as far as she could go while still able to hear the murmur of conversation. But she went. She understood the lesson now.


End file.
